INCREDIBLE SCENES from the mid-1940s showing entire neighbourhoods of men, women and children being covered in the dangerous pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT).

An astonishing 1.34 billion tonnes of the chemical was sprayed across the United States in the years between 1946 and 1962.

Unlike lead arsenate which was sprayed onto food, DDT was sprayed directly onto children in an attempt to protect them from flies and mosquitoes (which were said to be the cause of the disease).

Ironically polio had appeared suddenly alongside the introduction of the pesticide, lead arsenate, and had suddenly disappeared in the early 1950's alongside the abandonment of DDT…